Textile Art in Film

After completing ‘Heretiks’ – the horror film for which we made a large number of costumes, I thought … ‘another period film would be fun’. Going through many of the designs on fabric that we already have and searching through all the drawing books we came up with the idea of preparing a ‘lookbook’ of different historical periods. I have got side-tracked going through the thousands of images on Pinterest and must now discipline myself to focus on different eras to see what we can create that has authenticity and what it is possible for us to create using the skills in both the creation of the textiles and the designing and making of the garments.So we started doing research and decided to focus on a time frame that had inspired us such as Downton Abbey, Mr Selfridge and all the wonderful costumes by costume designers Susannah Brixton, Rosalind Ebbutt, Caroline McCall and Anna Robins.

The first couple of pieces that I created were a start and then I thought why not make the same shapes for now – obviously inspired by the shapes of the period but with a contemporary twist. So we have a new collection of shapes that echo the 1920s but with our own signature craziness added. We will not be making the heavily encrusted flapper dresses, but there will be some of our pleated dresses more heavily beaded than usual for those who like to sparkle!